Weak convergence for a stochastic exponential integrator and finite element discretization of stochastic partial differential equation with multiplicative & additive noise

We consider a finite element approximation of a general semi-linear stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) driven by space-time multiplicative and additive noise. We examine the full weak convergence rate of the exponential Euler scheme when the linear operator is self adjoint and also provide the full weak convergence rate for non-selfadjoint linear operator with additive noise. Key part of the proof does not rely on Malliavin calculus. For rion-self-adjoint operators, we analyse the optimal strong error for spatially semi-discrete approximations for both multiplicative and additive noise with truncated and non-truncated noise. Depending on the regularity of the noise and the initial solution, we found that in some cases the rate of weak convergence is twice the rate of the strong convergence. Our convergence rate is in agreement with some numerical results in two dimensions. (C) 2016 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.